I was a bit terrified of handling a WHOLE Chicken, and had been thinking it is only for professionals. LOL! Now I AM professional. :p

I had everything in the baking tray, saved a lot of hassles, with all I needed to served all cooked together. The baked potatoes is the carbohydrate, baked veggies are source for fibre. Yat-wok-sook! Very easy, simple, time saving (i.e. you can do other things while the chicken is being cooked in the oven!).

Here I served the chicken leg with the potatoes and veg…

RECIPE FOR LEMON HERB ROAST CHICKEN
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp Italian herbs
1/2 tsp thyme
1 lemon’s zest
1 whole lemon
1 whole garlic
Some olive oil
5 potatoes
1 red capsicum
1 green capsicum
1 carrot
1 onion
1 Japanese cucumber
(can change the greens with whatever veg you like. I can imagine it would be nice with mushrooms, and will try that next time)

Method
1. Clean chicken thoroughly well. Pat dry completely with kitchen towel.
2. Mix together salt, pepper, Italian herbs, thyme and lemon rinds. Rub the whole chicken with the mixture, including its cavity. Keep in fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 190C.
4. Wash and peel potatoes, cut into golf-ball sized chunks. Boil the potatoes together with the whole lemon and the garlic in boiling water for 12 minutes (this is according to Jamie Oliver, I dunno why that ‘magic number’, haha!)
5. Strain potatoes, remove lemon and garlic. Coat potatoes with some olive oil, some pepper and salt to season (do this when the potatoes is still hot).
6. Stab the hot lemon with knife carefully (the juice will ooze out), for about 10 times. Stuff the whole lemon and the garlic into the cavity of the chicken.
7. Rub the whole chicken with some olive oil, then place in a roasting tray with breast side up, and bake for 45 min.
8. While waiting for chicken to cook, wash and cut the veggies into large chunks.
9. After 45 min remove the chicken onto a plate. Line the roasting tray with the potatoes and veggies, season with some salt and pepper, mix well with the fat drippings from the chicken earlier. Then place the chicken onto them, this time with back side up.
10. Roast for about 30 min. Then turn the chicken breast side up and roast further 10 min. This way you will have the skin crispy all around.
11. Let the chicken set for about 10-15 min before carving.

The original recipe calls for rosemary instead of Italian seasoning. I didn’t have that, so just improvised with whatever I have on hand, turned out very good, so I guess it just doesn’t matter. LOL!

p/s: Just realized that I have never posted a chicken dish here in this blog and have to create a new category for it. Yes, used to reject all sorts of meat apart from Fish, but now I have gave up, just reduce it but not completely rejecting.

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INGREDIENTS
4-5 stalks of spring onion, cut to about 2″ long
1 inch of young ginger (嫩姜), thinly sliced
1 large piece of garoupa fish fillet, sliced (not too thin)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 pip of garlic, chopped
Some oil for frying

METHOD
1. Heat oil in wok, stir fry ginger, garlic and sugar until fragrant.
2. Add in oyster sauce and stir for a few seconds.
3. Add in spring onion and fish fillet, stir fry until fish is cooked (no longer translucent)
4. Add salt to taste, serve hot.

I prefer to pre-fry the fish fillet, as the fillet will be intact, flesh not easily loosen into the dish. To do that, heat a wok of oil (more, to cover all fillet), fry the fillet until slightly cooked. Drain and use in the dish above.

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I have to confess, I don’t like to eat fish this way… I prefer fish fillet, no bone or head for me to handle. LOL! Next time I will repeat this, with fish fillet.

INGREDIENTS
2 medium fishes
5 egg-yolks
1 tbsp evaporated milk
5 tbsp butter
10 chili padi
2 stalks curry leaves
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
Some oil for frying
Some tapioca flour to coat fish

METHOD
1. Heat up oil. Wipe some salt on fish, coat fish with the flour and fry fish till crisp. Set aside.
2. Mix egg yolks and evaporated milk well.
3. Heat butter in wok until melted. Slowly pour in egg yolk mixture, keep stir-frying until the egg become shredded.
4. Add chili and curry leave, continue to stir fry until fragrant.
5. Add the fried fish to the wok. Add sugar and salt. Stir well.
6. Drain out the excessive oil and serve hot.

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INGREDIENT
2 packets of frozen Dory fish (each costs about RM3 to 3.50 if you buy from Carrefour)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2-3 tbsp oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced.
[Add this if you like:
1/2 red capsicum, cut into wedges
1/2 green capsicum, cut into wedges
1/2 pc of pineapple, cut into wedges]

Sauce (combine):
1 tbsp sugar or to taste
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp white vinegar
4 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp plum sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp tapioca flour, mixed with 1 tbsp water for thickening

METHOD
1. Clean fish and cut into 1″ pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Leave aside for 10 minutes.
2. Rub fish with beaten egg and coat with tapioca flour. Deep-fry in hot oil till cooked and crispy. Remove and place on a serving plate.
3. Heat up oil, saute garlic and onions until fragrant.
4. Add tomato and cucumber [also capsicums + pineapple if you use any].
5. Stir-fry briskly. Pour in sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Add thickening, then pour over fish. Garnish with spring onion and coriander leaves if you want. Serve immediately.

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INGREDIENTS
1 packet of fish paste
(alternatively you can buy 1 tenggiri fish and scrap out the meat yourself)
2 eggs
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 tbsp tapioca flour melt in 1/4 cup of water
Some salt and pepper to taste
Some oil for frying

METHOD
1. Mix all ingredient in a bowl.
2. Heat up oil in frying pan.
3. Use a soup spoon to scoop out the fish mixture, drop into oil with medium heat, fry until golden. Serve hot.

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INGREDIENTS
2 cups of rice, washed and steamed with 4 cups of water. Set aside for frying later.
1 cup of corns
1 cup of chopped vegetarian Charsiu
1 bowl of finely chopped onion (about 2-3 onions)
Some oil for frying
3-4 eggs, lightly beat with some soy sauce for seasoning
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
Some salt for seasoning
[If you want, can add 1 cup of chopped carrots too]

METHOD
1. Heat oil in wok.
2. Saute onion until fragrant and transparent.
3. Add in rice, corn and charsiu, fry until rice loosen up and heated up.
4. Add in soy sauce and mix well.
5. With high-heat, slowly pour in egg mixture while keep on stir frying.
6. The rice will be sticky, keep stir frying until the wok finally become light and no longer sticky (it will have very nice fragrance).
7. Season with salt and serve hot.

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Because PILs coming over for dinner, so I cannot be lazy just fry like that, so had to make the marmite sauce.

This Marmite sauce is different from previous, as I was trying different variation. This one substitute honey with plum sauce. So the quality of plum sauce is important (so does honey!).

INGREDIENTS
2 tenggiri fish
2 tbsp Marmite yeast extract
2 tbsp Plum Sauce
2 tbsp Sugar
1/4 cup of water
Some oil for deep frying

METHOD
1. Deep fry fish till cook and set aside for later.
2. Remove some oil, leave only a little for the sauce.
3. Heat the oil, stir fry the Marmite extract, plum sauce and sugar till fragrant.
4. Add in water, simmer for a while till sauce thicken.
5. Pour the sauce on the fried fish and serve hot.

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I just want to let them get used to a variety of vegetables, so I have been trying to push for asparagus lately.

This asparagus is similar to the previous stir fry asparagus, with very small differences.

In this one, I used stuffed taopok (豆腐干) instead of the fuchuk. I also used a different seasoning –> nutritional yeast flake.

Nutritional yeast flake is very tasty and yes ‘nutritional’! It is often used as cheese substitute in vegan dishes. I once tried it but didn’t really like the fake cheese. Still prefer the real cheese. LOL!

Anyhow, the use of nutritional yeast here, to substitute salt or other seasoning is surprisingly good. My mom came for dinner and she specifically mentioned this asparagus very tasty.

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So, I tried to cook the same dish, and found a few variations of the recipe. Here is one of the many variations, which I quite like.

INGREDIENTS
Fish
2 large pcs of Garoupa fish fillets
Some tapioca flour
Some cooking oil

Marmite Sauce
1 pip of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2 tbsp Marmite yeast extract
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp honey
Dash of pepper
1/2 cup or 100ml of water

METHOD
1. Dry the fish fillets with cloth before cutting the fish fillets into thin slices.
2. Add some tapioca to coat the fish fillets.
3. Heat some oil in wok.
4. Just before frying the fish, coat the fish (already coated with tapioca flour) with some oil, and immediately drop into the wok. This way, the fish will be nicely fried.
5. Fry the fish till it turn golden yellow. Drain and put aside.
6. Remove excessive oil, reserve only about a tbsp for sauce.
7. Heat the oil, add in garlic and fry till fragrant.
8. Add in sugar, Marmite and honey. Stir fry for a while. Add in pepper.
9. Lastly, add in water and simmer a while, before adding the fish fillet earlier. Stir fry to well coat the fish with the sauce. Serve hot.

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Anyhow, here is my stir fry asparagus. Children don’t really like this dish because it is harder to chew compared to soft veggie like spinach.

Ingredients
1 bunch of asparagus
4-5 pcs of fuchuk/beancurd
1 tsp of finely chopped garlic

Method
1. Wash asparagus and bend them into approx 2″ sections.
2. If asparagus is big, you might need to peel off the hard outer skins near the root, or would be too rough to chew.
3. Cut fuchuk into halves.
4. Heat oil in wok. Add garlic and stir fry till fragrant.
5. Add in the remaining ingredients. Stir fry for a while.
6. Add in 1 cup of water and simmer with cover for a few minutes.
7. Remove the cover, add in seasoning and fry a few times before serving.

One seasoning that I like for vegetarian dish is the Vegetarian G Powder (素G粉). It is made of soy bean, and tastes better than ajinomoto. Using this makes dishes tastes better than salt!!

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